Mark Haas, a sports anchor with California’s KGET, had some fun with a recent minor league hockey promotion by the ECHL Bakersfield Condors. The team gave away a funeral plot for two at the “Historic Union Cemetery” — worth in the range of $5,000 — to a lucky fan. It even involved a hearse driven out onto the ice.

During the game highlights, Haas incorporated 35 death puns into 90 seconds of live television, ranging from “Don’t Fear the Reaper” to the “Walking Dead.” It’s a clever move that clearly took some thought in advance.

These “themed” newscasts seem like a brilliant way to draw some attention to local news. Most folks can tolerate an excess of bad puns or references to a point … so long as they aren’t fish puns. A newscast filled with those would probably fail to make a splash and flop.